The Indian Tree of the Sun and the Moon
The Indian Tree of the Sun and the Moon was an Oracular Tree that told the future. Two parts of the tree trunk spoke depending on the time of day; in the daytime the tree spoke as a male and at night it spoke as a female. Alexander the Great and Marco Polo are said to have visited this tree. The tree is located in the province of Tonocain, southeast of Persia. All of the locals worship and seek advise from it. It is probably the most famous account of Oracular trees in history. Alexander the Great's Account These Oracular Trees of the Sun and Moon, somewhere on the confines of India, appear in all the fabulous histories of Alexander, from the Callisthenes downwards. Thus Alexander is made to tell the story in a letter to Aristotle: "Then came some of the towns-people and said, 'We have to show thee something passing strange, O King, and worth thy visiting; for we can show thee trees that talk with human speech.' So they led me to a certain park, in the midst of which were the Sun and Moon, and round about them a guard of priests of the Sun and Moon. And there stood the two trees of which they had spoken, like unto cypress trees; and round about them were trees like the myrobolans of Egypt, and with similar fruit. And I addressed the two trees that were in the midst of the park, the one which was male in the Masculine gender, and the one that was female in the Feminine gender. And the name of the Male Tree was the Sun, and of the female Tree the Moon, names which were in that language Muthu and Emausae. And the stems were clothed with the skins of animals; the male tree with the skins of he-beasts, and the female tree with the skins of she-beasts.... And at the setting of the Sun, a voice, speaking in the Indian tongue, came forth from the (Sun) Tree; and I ordered the Indians who were with me to interpret it. But they were afraid and would not, (for it predicted my end). Marco Polo's Account A quote from Marco Polo ~ "It also contains an immense plain on which is found the Arbre Sol (Tree of the Sun), which we Christians call the Arbre Sec; and I will tell you what it is like. It is a tall and thick tree, having the bark on one side green and the other white; and it produces a rough husk like that of a chestnut, but without anything in it. The wood is yellow like box, and very strong, and there are no other trees near it nor within a hundred miles of it, except on one side, where you find trees within about ten miles' distance. And there, the people of the country tell you, was fought the battle between Alexander and King Darius. The towns and villages have great abundance of everything good, for the climate is extremely temperate, being neither very hot nor very cold. The natives all worship (the Tree)." Category:Cryptids Category:Cryptid Wiki Category:Humanoids Category:Asian cryptids Category:India Category:Southeast Asia Category:Plantae Category:Oracular Trees Category:Supernatural Category:No Modern Sightings Category:Aliens Category:Cryptids from religion Category:Beneficent